Opinion by Jennifer Rubin | The only real chance for the party to move beyond Trump might be two Republican governors not in the race yet: Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin.
, who are brave enough to denounce Trump, will catch fire. But, candidly, the emergence of contenders with such low name recognition would be a minor miracle.
That leaves many pundits to surmise that Trump is the inevitable nominee, whether he’s on trial, already convicted orfacing multiple criminal indictments. The Republican primary electorate might be so ensconced in the MAGA cult and so impervious to reason that they cannot imagine that the general electorate would reject him. However, Trump’s nomination is hardly inevitable.
, voting rights, race, education and more are anathema outside the GOP. But that’s not the criteria for marshaling a Trump challenge. Their audience is Republican primary, “Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, one of the only high-profile Republicans to have ever come out stronger from a battle with Trump, has conspicuously stiff-armed buzz about his own presidential prospects.” However, he has not given a Shermanesque statement that would shut the door entirely on a run.
Youngkin didn’t turn out to be the warm and fuzzy governor moderates and credulous pundits envisioned he would be. But the very things that defied their expectations — his preference for votersuppression tactics, anti-trans baiting, culture wars in the schools and hawking for extreme MAGA candidates — have endeared him to the far right. He’s managed not to offend the MAGA base without blessing Trump’s alleged criminality. However, he might lack the moxie to take on Trump if he ran.
There might be no solution to the GOP’s self-inflicted Trump problem. Perhaps elected officials, donors and country-club Republicans prefer a thrashing at the polls in 2024 rather than a fight with the MAGA base. But if they decide to save their party and spare the country from another Trump nomination, they should send up a distress signal later this year. Kemp or Youngkin might just answer it.
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